Section A:
Patrick Free was a suspect in the murder case of Adam Suopys in New Jersey. He was taken into custody at 5:18 p.m on 1/8/98 where he received relentless interrogation for seventeen hours straight. He was kept in a small room and was not offered any food or water throughout the duration of the interrogation which lasted over the entire night.
He was questioned by up to four interrogators at the same time. He continually denied the charge for the first eleven hours. Detective Leitenberger discussed details of the case during the interrogation which is against protocol. Patrick Free was given a pretest at 1:30 A.M. He was then administered a polygraph test at 2:20 A.M. Finally, he was given a post-test interview from 4:39 A.M. to …show more content…
The leading problem is that it is sending innocent people to jail for a huge part of their lives, while the real criminals still get to walk the streets. This issue is so large that a group has came together to combat it. The Innocence Project works at exonerating individuals who have been falsely convicted. In 2006, Richard Leo stated that over 170 DNA exonerations of convictions, approximately 20 to 25 percent of which resulted in whole or in part from police- induced false confessions. This shows that about one out of every four exoneration cases is due to a false confession. This is clearly a very prevalent problem facing the criminal justice system …show more content…
The main reason is the buildup of stress that comes from being interrogated. This is why most interrogations do not last over four hours straight. However, Patrick Free was interrogated for seventeen hours straight without any contact with friends and family. Other factors include high levels of fatigue, hunger, and sleep deprivation. Suspects who falsely confess fall into four categories which were learned in class discussion. Suspects who confess under instrumental- coerced reasons do so to stop the long, intense interrogation. Others confess to achieve a goal like gaining fame (instrumental- voluntary). A third type is known as authentic- coerced where the suspect begins to believe they actually committed the crime. The fourth and final reason is called authentic- voluntary which occurs when a suspect confesses due to a mental illness. Instrumental coerced and authentic coerced false confessions are both demonstrated in this
Patrick Free was a suspect in the murder case of Adam Suopys in New Jersey. He was taken into custody at 5:18 p.m on 1/8/98 where he received relentless interrogation for seventeen hours straight. He was kept in a small room and was not offered any food or water throughout the duration of the interrogation which lasted over the entire night.
He was questioned by up to four interrogators at the same time. He continually denied the charge for the first eleven hours. Detective Leitenberger discussed details of the case during the interrogation which is against protocol. Patrick Free was given a pretest at 1:30 A.M. He was then administered a polygraph test at 2:20 A.M. Finally, he was given a post-test interview from 4:39 A.M. to …show more content…
The leading problem is that it is sending innocent people to jail for a huge part of their lives, while the real criminals still get to walk the streets. This issue is so large that a group has came together to combat it. The Innocence Project works at exonerating individuals who have been falsely convicted. In 2006, Richard Leo stated that over 170 DNA exonerations of convictions, approximately 20 to 25 percent of which resulted in whole or in part from police- induced false confessions. This shows that about one out of every four exoneration cases is due to a false confession. This is clearly a very prevalent problem facing the criminal justice system …show more content…
The main reason is the buildup of stress that comes from being interrogated. This is why most interrogations do not last over four hours straight. However, Patrick Free was interrogated for seventeen hours straight without any contact with friends and family. Other factors include high levels of fatigue, hunger, and sleep deprivation. Suspects who falsely confess fall into four categories which were learned in class discussion. Suspects who confess under instrumental- coerced reasons do so to stop the long, intense interrogation. Others confess to achieve a goal like gaining fame (instrumental- voluntary). A third type is known as authentic- coerced where the suspect begins to believe they actually committed the crime. The fourth and final reason is called authentic- voluntary which occurs when a suspect confesses due to a mental illness. Instrumental coerced and authentic coerced false confessions are both demonstrated in this